Follow us on Twitter

In addition to being notified of new posts by RSS and E-mail, we are now on the Twitter bandwagon!  If you are an existing Twitter user, you can now “follow” our Twitter feed and get notified of new posts.  What is Twitter?  Well, here is what Wikipedia has to say:

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS, or email, or through applications such as Tweetie, Twinkle, TwitterFox, Twitterrific, Feedalizr, and Facebook. Four gateway numbers are currently available for SMS: short codes for the United States, Canada, and India, and a United Kingdom-based number for international use. Several third parties offer posting and receiving updates via email. Twitter had by one measure over 3 million accounts and, by another, well over 5 million visitors in September 2008, a fivefold increase in a month.

Adoption Forum I Final Report

The Adoption Forum I Final Report has been posted, providing an evaluation and statistical analysis of the 13 Michigan counties with the largest adoption dockets after collaborative work between the courts, local offices of the Michigan Department of Human Services, and other child welfare stakeholders.  Between March 1, 2008, and March 1, 2009, the counties participating in the Adoption Forum were able to increase adoptions by 14 percent for permanent wards.

The participating counties were:

• Berrien
• Macomb
• Calhoun
• Monroe
• Genesee
• Muskegon
• Ingham
• Oakland
• Jackson
• Saginaw
• Kalamazoo
• Wayne
• Kent

The participating counties employed a number of mechanisms to increase the number of adoptions of permanent wards.  These include:  streamlining requirements for adoption (e.g., paperwork); sending the termination order directly to the adoption caseworker to ensure an immediate response after termination; publicizing Adoption Day; judges meeting monthly with CASAs, local DHS, and prosecutor to discuss barriers to timely adoptions and solutions; meetings with the private sector to recruit adoptive families; and creation of a “rocket docket,” a special docket for backlogged cases.  There were a number of other methods employed that are not listed here.

To download or view the report, click here: Adoption Forum I – Final Report 2009

Free Press Columnist Rochelle Riley’s Nice Article Regarding Foster Care in Michigan

On Freep.com this morning columnist Rochelle Riley wrote a great article regarding the state of Foster Care in Michigan today and the efforts being made by the Department of Human Services for the future.  Ms. Riley also discusses the efforts being made pursuant to the class action filed by the advocacy group Children’s Rights.

The article addresses the Department of Human Services public relations efforts throughout the month of May, which is National Foster Care Month, to recruit new foster care parents.  She writes, “They are also out to repair the agency’s reputation and tout changes in the system that oversees 16,800 foster children and teens.”

She reports that with all of the State budget cuts, foster care remains untouched. She states: “There are no direct cuts in foster care,” Ismael Ahmed, DHS director since September 2007, told me in an interview this week. “In fact, we’ll be putting more money in foster care as a result of several things that are part of the child welfare improvement template that we adopted.” I have been following the budget cuts to services related to children’s protective services in general on this blog.  (See “The Budget Axe” post)

She also cites a number of statistics in her article. Here are a few:

• The department has cut the ratio of cases to workers from 40-1 to 22-1. The settlement calls for 15-1, and Ahmed said the state hopes to reach that next year.
• There’s about 125,000 phone calls or reports of abuse of children every year.
• DHS investigates about half of those, removing some 17,000 kids from homes each year.

You can read Ms. Riley’s complete article on the Freep.com by clicking here.